Thread: New Floating Candelabra prop

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Hello Haunters! The big day approaches!

Wanted to share my new Floating Candelabra prop. To set the stage.... this will be placed outside and will float over a long table which will sit at top of my driveway with a skeleton bride on one end and me (in costume) on the other (which is the end the ToT's MUST walk past - hehe). All but the Candelabra will be hidden behind dark drapes hanging down at the entrance to our carport.

This link is the night shot of the candelabra....(sorry about the camera flip halfway through)
FloatingCandelabra.flv - Video - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

This is what makes it move and float....(all hidden behind black curtains)
Candelabrasupportandmotors.flv - Video - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Extra video of what makes the fan turn on & off to give random movements...
CandelabrafanandRepeatCycleTimer.flv - Video - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting


Special thanks goes out to ghost-songs for the inspiration and technical know-how!

Wow, excellent job! That really looks cool and thanks for posting the videos.

Very neat concept!!!

Laurie & Shrimp, Thanks for the feedback. Tonight I am going to put this outside for any final "tweaking" or lighting adjustment.

BTW...lauriebeast....always meant to tell ya how incredible your Frankenstein Bride looks. She's just incredible.

HauntedPumpkin - that looks really great. I've always wanted to do that, so thanks for the great video. I'll have to show this to my husband....maybe he'll get interested in doing it for next year. Beautiful job!

i saw that device before but It looked to constructive to me so I just went with a FCG type of device. Was it hard to put together?

GDfreak, It put together like any prop though there were a few challenges...

1) for me the only part that really took time & extra effort was the motor assembly, specifically the attachment of the fan and flat aluminum bar it sits on to the post of the 7RPM motor inside the black PVC cap. Everything else was relatively easy.

2) the two end have to balance so I had to wire everything up then see where I needed to add a penny or old key on the front or back of the bar. That really wasn't a challenge though so maybe just #1 above was the biggest task.

Cool effect. The randomness is great.

Very clever! I'd never thought of using a little fan to propel a prop. What kind of motor are you using to turn the fan?

Buckaneerdude, I used a small 1.5" long x 1 1/16 " gear motor I picked up cheap online at a suplus website. It's a 6-12 VDC motor that spins at 7 RPM @ 12 VDC. It doesn't have a Make on it so not sure who manufactured it. The key is to keep the RPM's down and the size of the motor small (to keep the weight down and so it fits inside the PVC endcap). In the last video you can see the Repeat Cycle Timer that turns the fan on & off at set intervals which gives it its randomness.

The motor does give off more sound than I would want but when outside with everything else that is going on it gets drowned out.